Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Jelly Belly Factory

As a last hurrah to summer we went with some friends to visit the Jelly Belly Factory!

It has a free tour you can take to see how they make Jelly Bellies.

We got to wear goofy hats, which the kids loved, but mine just wouldn't stay on my head. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the tour, but it was really cool to see all the millions of jelly beans. Did you know it takes anywhere from 7 to 21 days to make a Jelly Belly? Now you do.

My favorite part of the tour was getting to see all the really cool Jelly Belly mosaics they have.

Ronald Reagan was a huge Jelly Belly fan. The blueberry Jelly Belly was invented just for his presidential campaign so he could pass out red, white, and blue Jelly Bellies. He would start all his meetings in the White House by passing around a bowl of Jelly Bellies, and there was a special spill-proof Jelly Belly container on Air Force One.

I totally want to make a jelly bean mosaic now.

You also get free samples at the end of your tour. I was brave and tried a moldy cheese one, and it actually wasn't too bad. They also now have candy corn flavored Jelly Bellies, which were pretty good, but I think I'll just stick with the real things.

We stopped at McDonald's for lunch afterward, because even though a jelly bean shaped hamburger sounds good in concept, paying $8 for a kid's meal is not. And that was our fun outing! We had a great time and it was a fun way to finish off our summer.